I am selling my home in Taplow and the EA has just e-mailed to advise that the buyers are swapping law firm. The reason given is that the bank will only engage with solicitors on their approved list. On what basis would a big named lender only deal with certain law firms rather the firm that they want to appoint to handle their conveyancing in Taplow ?
UK lenders have always had an approved set of law firms they are content to work with, but in the past few years big names such as Nationwide, have considered and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for many years.
Lenders blame a rise in fraud as the reason for the cull – criteria have been narrowed as a smaller panel is easier to monitor. Banks tend not to disclose how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society claims that it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Some are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. Your purchasers are not going to have any sway in the decision.
I am buying a house for cash in Taplow. I have been residing for the previous 20 years in Taplow. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. As I know the area and road intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?
Provided that you do not need a mortgage, then all but one or two of the Taplow conveyancing searches are optional. Your lawyer will 'advise', no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches done, but he is duty bound to take that path of encouragement . Do bear in mind; if you are intend to sell the house at a future date, it will be of relevance to your prospective purchaser what the searches contain. There are plenty of instances where premises with apparent issues can still throw up unpredicted search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Taplow should provide you some constructive advice here.
I currently have a mortgage with Bank of Ireland for my property in Taplow. Conveyancing has been completed 12 months ago. In the event that I decide to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Bank of Ireland?
Bank of Ireland must be informed of your intention before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Bank of Ireland’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Bank of Ireland will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Bank of Ireland directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel lawyer.
I recently had an offer agreed on an apartment in Taplow. My mortgage broker suggested a solicitor. I paid an upfront payment of £225. A few days later, the conveyancing practitioner called me to say that they were not on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Kent Reliance panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
At last I have had an offer on a maisonette in Taplow agreed to, but there is a chain. The sellers have offered on a flat, however it’s not yet tied up, and have viewings of other apartments in the pipeline. I have chosen a high street conveyancing solicitor in Taplow. What do I do now? When should I get the mortgage application with Principality started?
It is normal to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur costs too early (mortgage application is in the region of £1k, then survey, Taplow conveyancing search charges, etc). First, you should ensure that your solicitor is on the Principality conveyancing panel. Concerning the subsequent steps this very much depends on the circumstances of your transaction, motivation for the property and on the state of the market. During a hot market some purchasers would apply for a home loan with Principality and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they pay their conveyancing practitioner to proceed with the conveyancing in Taplow.
I am close to exchanging contracts on the sale of our home in Taplow and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a possibility that the property was built on contaminated land. A local lawyer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the buyers are using a nationwide conveyancing practice as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Taplow. Having lived in Taplow for many years we know that this is a non issue. Should we contact our local Authority to obtain confirmation that the buyers are looking for.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing firm currently acting for you. Are they able to advise? You need to enquire of your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out health insurance to cover that same sickness)
How does conveyancing in Taplow differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in Taplow come to us having been asked by the seller to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is finished. This is because developers in Taplow usually buy the real estate, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Taplow or who has acted in the same development.
Are there any apps to help locate a Taplow solicitor on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel? I am a keen cyclist and am willing to travel upto 25kilometers to meet the lawyer.
You can use the search on this website. Please choose the bank and your location and you will see a number of Taplow conveyancing lawyers locally. We have listed some Taplow conveyancing firms towards the end of this page and you can telephone them to see if they are on the Virgin Money approved list